Sunshine (Student/Teacher Romance) 18+

27

Ari

"Look at Ari," I hear one of them say and feel my skin prickle just knowing what's coming next. No matter how strongly I keep my face forward. No matter if I totally ignore them, tune out their voices and force myself to keep pushing, they only push back. Stronger and harder.

"Here little Stray girl," Kaliyah coos at me from across the row that they're posted up against as I move with quick hands to gather what I'll need from my locker.

I grit my teeth as they snicker and laugh and make kissing sounds like I'm some kind of little animal.

"Hey!" A deeper voice barks seconds before I'm hit in the head by a solid object. It jolts me, making me grip the cold steel for balance with blurred vision. "We're fucking calling you, mut!"

And then I snap. I'm seeing red.

I'm seeing nothing but Kaliyah's face as I launch toward the group like a catapult.

I grip her shoulders and knock her onto the ground.

"You're the mut you fucking bitch!" I shout on top of her, my hands in her deep brown hair tugging and pulling, up and down as she holds me by my wrists in a struggle to stop me.

"Get off of me, you psychopath!" Her squeals and squirming do nothing to kill the rage she set off inside of me.

After everything at home with Diana, years of abuse by Thomas, after losing my parents, soon to be losing my best friend, Stacey, and Abel.

Abel.

I can't.

"Ari, stop it, stop it!" Unfamiliar voices chant at me until I'm dragged away by a strong pull, hands wrapped around each of my elbows with my heels scraping the linoleum.

"I can't take it anymore!" I scream. "I can't! I can't! Leave me alone!"

My voice broke and cracked as I was escorted away, as the mass tended to Kaliyah and all looked at me with their judgement filled stares. Like I was in the wrong, when I was only the one who was constantly provoked. Over and over and over until I finally hit a breaking point.

How was I wrong?

I was released from tight hands after a door was shut, left to gasp for air over my weak, exhausted cries, clutching the wall behind me for some stability.

"Ari, Ari," his smooth voice shuts me off in an instant, and as soon as I look up into his eyes I'm flooded with everything I was trying to forget.

Those eyes. Those feelings. Those lips.

Truthfully, I didn't want to forget about that kiss.

I wanted to keep thinking about it until I was living it again. But I knew he didn't want that, and why live in misery, wanting a man who I can't have? A man whose life I'd only ruin because that's all I seem to know how to do.

"Relax, sweetheart." His hands come toward me, reaching for my shoulders, but I move away, making a frown form on his face, only to be quickly cleaned up when the door opens.

I watch his hands retract to his pockets, the distance between us plain as night and day as Principal Morgan steps in with security trailing behind him.

"Ari, my office. Come on," he demands. I give Abel one last look as I follow beside the tall school security officer.

It hurts to look at him.

It really hurts.

...

I'd sat in Principal Morgan's office a number of times before. It was never anything good, but it also was never really my fault either.

And he always looks at me like that. Like pity, like dismay.

Like a look I hate that I have to see every day of my entire existence.

"She's a bully," I mumble.

"She says you attacked her."

"She attacks me everyday with her catcalling, name calling—they threw something at my head, Principal Morgan. Bet she didn't mention that."

"Listen, Ari. I know what goes on around here. I'm very well aware, even though it may seem like I'm just in my office all day." He bring his fingertips together in front of him as I massage the back of my aching skull. "I know they give you a hard time."

"They've given me hell on Earth," I say in a small, tired tone. "I can't take any more of this. I know there's only a semester left, but it's taking everything in me not to just drop out of school once I'm eighteen and work full time."

"That's not a good idea Ari, and you know that. You are so close to the finish-line. Imagine how good you'll feel to look back and know you persevered through all of that."

"Shitty, because while I'm forced to craw on my hands and knees through the rubble of my past, people like Kaliyah will always have a clear path ahead of them. She's always had the upper hand. She doesn't know what it's like to be me. To struggle. To be alone. To work twice as hard and still come up short. To have to run from..."

"Run from what, Ari?" Principal Morgan tilts his head.

I hear a click beside me and glance over at the security officer standing idly by before my eyes fall to his open note pad.

"Nothing."

"Like I said, I know what goes on. But I can't help you unless you speak up. If you keep hiding the fact that you need help, you'll never get it. You'll never get out."

"I was never going to get out anyway. You think I never spoke up before? It always landed me somewhere else. Somewhere worse. Same shit, different family. I'll get help when I help myself." I stare hard at him, unblinking. "So, when's my suspension up."

"I'm not suspending you, Ari."

"Why not. Go ahead, I need more hours at work anyway."

"You need to be in class." He lowers his gaze, pushing himself toward his laptop on the adjacent desk beside him. "I'm suspending Kaliyah, and when I find out who threw that stapler at you, they're expelled."

A stapler?

My eyes widen slightly, and while I believe a suspension is going easy on Kaliyah, I'm glad to feel like I'm finally being heard. Like I'm finally being gone easy on.

Why didn't I lose control sooner?

"However, I am giving you detention."

I sigh, my eyes rising up to the ceiling as I slowly sink in this slippery chair.

"Five days of detention with Mr. Caswell."

My blood goes stark cold and I feel my face paralyze in stun over just his name alone.

Five days. Detention. Alone with Mr. Caswell.

Abel.

Principal Morgan flicks his gaze my way like my sudden silence called his attention, and his pen stops moving in his hand. "Detention starts after school Monday, Ari."

I gulp, nodding as much as my stiff neck will allow.

"Until then, lay low please. Go to class, do your work, keep your grades up. You've got a bright future ahead of you, young lady. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from doing what you're capable of."